BMCE Bank International plc, one of London’s leading international banks specialising in African investment had to review the business continuity market as their recovery provider closed their chosen centre.

The value of the Bank’s business and the service to its clients lies in the knowledge and experience of their team. Thus, it is crucial that those people and the core supporting teams have a fully functioning work environment and infrastructure to enable them to continue delivering that service level, even at times when the normal operational centre is not available.

Current Threats

Threats to business in London currently range from the more mundane fires and floods to terrorism related cordons or ransomware lockdown. At these times clients will still need and expect the same level of service or will have to look to alternative suppliers.

Consequently, those businesses not set up to continue business as usual, despite these events, will incur direct financial impact and loss of customers, often permanently.

Fortress Advanced Recovery

The Bank’s Management Team reviewed the market to find the most appropriate business continuity service. It was clear that the more traditional provider’s services had changed little in over a decade but Fortress brought a fresh approach.

“As we had the opportunity to make a choice, it was important to choose the most modern infrastructure and environment to futureproof the investment”, Chris Hogan, the Head of Operational Risk said.

The Bank chose the Fortress Advanced Recovery service to provide replacement office and supporting infrastructure at the time of a disaster.

The Fortress Crossharbour Recovery Centre is 30 minutes from their head office which is more than enough time for the Fortress team to have recovered their corporate PC image to the PCs in the recovery centre and made supporting telephony available to all recovery suites.

In fact, by using the latest Ghost Image technology and infrastructure that Fortress provide, their image is recovered within 8 minutes from invocation.

As staff arrive they can immediately log straight back into their remote desktops and continue with conversations – business as usual whatever the event.

Modern Recovery Environment

“It is important to us that the work environment, operational or recovery, supports the delivery of services and does not impede it. This means that the recovery environment too should be a pleasant place to be, easily accessible and have good facilities and amenities” explains Colin Janes, the Head of IT.

After a review of the market, Fortress was chosen because their new Recovery Centre delivers bright, modern suites with good natural light. These facilities are underpinned with the very latest technology. This futureproofs the service but also results in a fast and efficient recovery. The centre has the very latest PCs, Cat6 infrastructure and diverse 1GB links to the internet to enable customers to link back to their recovered systems.

“The Fortress team are also easy to deal with. Making changes or updates is a straightforward process and we just need to ask and things get done. The team is always available to support us, onsite, to provide their extensive experience and knowledge.

Overall, the experience of moving to Fortress has been simple and pain free. It has also  provided significant improvements to the bank’s work area recovery provision and the speed and effectiveness of our recovery process.”

Fortress Services

• Work Area Recovery
• Voice Recording
• PC Imaging

Business Benefits

• Dramatic reduction in recovery time.
• Much improved recovery environment – in line with staff expectations.
• Much improved recovery infrastructure
• Helps maintain compliance with FCA Regulation